Inside Eat Offbeat Founded by Manal Kahi ’15SIPA

Eat OffbeatThe Refugee-Run , Kitchen That’s Satisfying Adventurous Eaters With A Taste For Social Good

Katie Sola
August 22, 2016

Chef Dhuha Jasim grew up eating potato kibbeh croquettes at home in Iraq. Now she earns a living wage preparing her mother’s exact recipe for New Yorkers at Eat Offbeat.

The for-profit caterer specializes in authentic cuisine cooked by recently arrived refugee chefs for a growing list of corporate and non-profit clients in New York City. The small business currently employs a dozen of them, and right now, all of them are women.

The Queens kitchen where Dhuha and her co-workers prepare entrees like Nepalese lamb pulao and Eritrean lentils provides meals for the city’s adventurous eaters, but it also gives the women — none of whom have worked in a professional kitchen before – job training and a group of colleagues they call family.

While the operation is still small, Eat Offbeat’s social message has sparked sales, and the quality of its food brings clients back for more: 40 percent of their orders are repeat business. The kitchen, which currently caters to corporations, universities and non-governmental organizations, has its sights set on growth, and wants to bring its food to like-minded companies that share their passion for social good. [Rest of Story]